A blinding light on stage or a faulty air conditioning system are some of the leading theories about what caused a series of mysterious illnesses at a Trump rally.
A dozen people sitting on the stage behind the former president in Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday suffered “burning” eyes in the hours after the political rally and had to go to the emergency room.
Others said that in the following days any bright light left them “blinded” and they had to hide indoors with a towel over their heads and suffer constant pain.
Two doctors told DailyMail.com they believed this could be due to a problem with the air conditioning, which blows too hard and dries out attendees’ eyes or blows fine dust into their eyes causing irritation and damage.
The image above shows Trump during the rally at Tucson Music Hall. Those on stage to the right of the former president reported injuries.
However, a third suggested the most likely cause of the illnesses was faulty lighting on the stage after shining a strong ultraviolet light on attendees during the one hour and 18 minute rally.
Some people online have suggested the injuries could have been caused by pepper spray or other chemicals, but doctors said this was unlikely, adding that pepper spray would likely have caused immediate symptoms.
It is unclear whether this was an intentional act or simply due to a failure in the building’s systems.
A spokesman for the US Secret Service said there was no known threat to the former president at the rally.
The Trump campaign said in a statement: “The Trump campaign has been gathering information. We remain committed to the countless patriots who attend our high-impact, high-energy events across the country.”
It is the second scare to hit a Trump rally in just two days, after reports circulated yesterday that explosives were found in a car.
And in mid-July, one person was killed and two seriously injured during an assassination attempt on Trump at his rally in Pennsylvania.
Mayra Rodriguez, a former Clinton supporter turned Trump fan and pro-life advocate, said her “eyes were burning” once she left the rally and headed to the emergency room shortly after arriving home from the speech.
Pictured above is a woman who asked not to be identified but also said she suffered eye problems after attending Trump’s rally.
Dr Talin Amadian, an optometrist in Los Angeles, told this website: ‘My line of thinking leads me to think this has something to do with the air conditioning and the vents in there.
‘In these buildings the air conditioning works very strongly and sometimes this can dry out the superficial membranes of the eyes.
‘It is also possible that there was some dust in the air conditioning vents, which could have reached the attendees.’
He added: “I’ve sat under an air conditioning vent in a long meeting and just the airflow, the constant airflow, can irritate your eyes and sometimes dry them out.”
New York City emergency physician Dr. Stuart Fischer agreed, saying, “It could be something in the air conditioning vents that spread onto the attendees, because it’s only affecting those in one part of the stage.
It could have been sand, sawdust, anything really.
“Something may have fallen on these people and they all rubbed their eyes, which is the worst thing you can do if something is covering the front of your eyes because it can cause abrasions (scratches).”
Doctors said symptoms of the eye damage would appear within hours of the event and would likely prompt patients to seek emergency care.
But they said the damage would not be permanent and many of those in attendance hoped to recover in the coming days.
The first injuries were reported on Tuesday of this week, five days after the demonstration, although the first patient presented on Friday of last week, just one day after the demonstration took place.
Dr. Robert Cykiert, an ophthalmologist at NYU Langone Health, suggested to DailyMail.com that the injuries were likely due to faulty lighting on stage.
He said: ‘The symptoms that these people are reporting are pretty classic for what we call UV keratitis or ultraviolet keratitis.
‘If ultraviolet light is of high intensity and directed at the eyes, it will burn the surface of the cornea and cause intense pain, blurred vision, tears, redness and swelling in the eyes that lasts approximately 24 to 48 hours.
Kathleen Winn, a former candidate for Arizona’s sixth congressional district, was sitting on the opposite side of the stage and said she was not aware of any injuries in the area where she was sitting.
‘I see patients with this who go to tanning salons and sit under the UV rays to get a tan and don’t wear plastic goggles, and they get these typical UV burns on the cornea.
“We also see it occasionally in people who go mountaineering and climb to high altitudes. Symptoms take a few hours to manifest because the cells don’t die until several hours after exposure.”
It is possible that tungsten halogen lamps (commonly used in theatres for stage lighting) or similar could have caused the injuries, he said, if they were faulty or fitted with the wrong type of bulb.
Dr Cykiert added: “That is the most likely scenario.”
‘The question is whether this was done on purpose as another way to attack Trump and his supporters or whether it was some kind of faulty lighting that these people were accidentally exposed to.’
He called for a full investigation by local authorities, the Secret Service and the FBI into the injuries.
All three doctors said they thought it was unlikely the injuries were caused by pepper spray because it would likely cause an “immediate reaction.”
They also said that if someone had sprayed the chemical in the building, it likely would have been immediately detected by security or the crowd or caught on camera.
Dr Amadian said: ‘I thought about that, but that would be something that would have been caught on camera or by the assistants, you know.
“I just feel like with security and everything now, people are very conscious of who comes in and what comes in, so I guess that would have been noticed by now.”
One of the patients who was affected was Myra Rodriguez, who began to feel pain in her eyes as soon as she left the demonstration and said that the next morning she could only see a “white cloud” from her eyes.
She had to stay home and keep them covered with a cold, wet towel because of the pain.
She said News for Tucsonwho was the first to report the injuries: ‘As soon as we got out and I walked outside, I started feeling like my eyes were burning.
‘(Right now) I can’t see anything when I try to open my eyes. I see a very strong light. It hurts, it hurts a lot to open my eyes. I have a cold cloth that I put on and take off constantly. It’s horrible.’
‘The emergency room staff kept saying, from the triage nurse to the PA, “Are you sure they didn’t spray you with something?”
Ms. Rodriguez drove the 90 minutes back to Phoenix after the rally, but said the pain in her eyes became so severe that she went to the emergency room.
Her daughter Alexandra Olvera, who spoke to DailyMail.com, said her mother had already almost fully recovered from the incident.
A brother and sister who were sitting near Ms. Rodriguez but asked not to be identified also shared their symptoms.
The brother said: “It was all concentrated in my eyes, my eyes were red as hell, you know, it’s unbearable. I couldn’t stand it.”
Her sister added: ‘It got worse and worse, my eyes were watering a lot, my nose started to run, then I started to feel my face getting really red and I felt like my neck was on fire and from there everything just got worse.’
Another woman said she had to cancel all her client appointments for next week because the protest had left her unable to see.